Unhinged in Iran

And the utterly delusional president of Iran again takes the stage at the United Nations.

Why? Why in heaven’s name is anyone giving unhinged leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad the time of day, much less offering him a bully pulpit to spout off his anti-Semitic, anti-Western tripe?

He was serving up his swill as recently as Monday, before the opening of the U.N. session, again slagging on Israel: “We don’t even count them as any part of any equation for Iran. During a historical phase, they (the Israelis) represent minimal disturbances that come into the picture and are then eliminated.”

A world leader – whose nation has burgeoning nuclear capabilities, and supposedly conducted mid-range missile tests in the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday – is predicting the elimination of another nation? Why isn’t the rest of the world utterly outraged?

To hear him talk in an interview this week with the Associated Press, Iran is thriving, despite global sanctions that have hamstrung the nation’s oil exports and its international banking operations.

“Today’s conditions in Iran are completely different to where they were seven years ago in the economy, in technical achievement, in scientific know-how,” Ahmadinejad said.

Uh-huh.

Marcus George of Reuters offers a more accurate snapshot of Iran in 2012:

“Ahmadinejad faces an economy ravaged by sanctions, a plummeting rial and inflation that officially stands at 25 percent but which some estimate is closer to 50 percent. Many criticize him for launching a program in 2010 to withdraw generous subsidies in favor of cash handouts. Food and fuel prices have soared, and households have struggled to cope.”

Ahmadinejad is serving his final term as president. So, what were experts expecting from his final U.N. address?

“Now he’s been sidelined at home he will really want to ham it up abroad,” said Ali Ansari, founder of the Institute for Iranian Studies at Scotland’s St Andrew’s University.”

He fulfilled that prediction.

“The current abysmal situation of the world and the bitter incidents of history are due mainly to the wrong management of the world and the self-proclaimed centers of power who have entrusted themselves to the devil,” Ahmadinejad said Wednesday.

Translation: I’m not the problem. It’s everybody else.

And how insulting that Ahmadinejad gave his speech on, of all days, Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the year for Jews.

Yom Kippur is highlighted by the central themes of atonement and repentance – two concepts that are utterly alien to Iran’s tyrannical president.